Voting in Fresno County? Here’s what we will know — and won’t know — on election night
California voters have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to cast their votes in the 2024 general election.
The Fresno County elections office has already begun counting ballots ahead of Election Day.
How soon after Election Day will voters know who won local races and which measures passed?
The Fresno Bee turned to Fresno County’s top election official to find out when election results will be available to the public.
Here’s a look at what we’ll know and when:
How many ballots has Fresno County received so far?
Fresno County has about 513,799 registered voters.
As of Friday, a total of 137,435 ballots had been delivered to the Fresno County Elections Division. That accounts for 26.7% of the county’s registered voters.
More than 81,000 of those ballots were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, The Fresno Bee previously reported, while voters deposited 55,000 more at ballot drop-off boxes across the county.
When do polls close in Fresno County?
Vote centers in Fresno County will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5.
You can vote in person or take your mail-in ballot to any poll place, drop-off location or designated drop box in the state before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Mailed ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by a county elections office no later than seven days after Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 12, according to The Bee’s voter guide.
When will election results start being released?
The first round of results will be released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday in Fresno County, according to James Kus, Fresno County clerk-registrar of voters.
There will be periodic updates throughout the night as more votes are processed and counted.
“We’ll have additional updates probably three updates throughout the night,” Kus said, until about midnight or 1 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
When Fresno County does its final election night update, officials will announce how many ballots they have yet to count.
“We’ll put rough counts or estimates on our website,” Kus said.
Fresno County’s next update for local voters will be available by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, according to Kus.
County elections officials will offer two updates every week after that, Kus said, “as long as we’ve still got ballots ready to count.”
The final results will be certified 28 days after the election, on Dec. 3.
How long will it take to count every vote?
According to Kus, the amount of time it’ll take Fresno County to finish its ballot count “very much depends on what the turnout is and how many people wait until the last day.”
“The more people who wait until the last day, the longer it’ll take us to count the ballots,” he said.
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